Scurvy re-emerges in Australia amidst over-cooking

IT'S a disease most commonly associated with sailors on long voyages however scurvy has made a comeback in Australia with doctors warning against dieting fads.

Professor Jenny Gunton from the entre for Diabetes, Obesity and Endocrinology research at the Westmead Institute in Sydney made the discovery after noticing one of her patient's ulcers failed to heal for seven months.

"She just did not have a reason not to heal her ulcers and they'd been there for seven months and that's just not right," Professor Gunton told the ABC.

"When something doesn't add up you go and look for the unusual causes ... so it all started with that."

An additional 12 patients were later diagnosed with the disease which is caused by a lack of vitamin C.

Anything that has vitamin C can keep the disease away - oranges, grape fruit, kiwi fruit, broccoli - making the diagnoses all the more surprising.

And Professor Gutton said her patients were all consuming reasonable amounts of these foods, however, she said they were over-cooking them and that was leading to scurvy.